Jose Mujica, a former left-wing guerrilla fighter, won Uruguay's presidential election Sunday with more than 50 percent of the vote, keeping the center-left Broad Front coalition in power.

His opponent Luis A. Lacalle, former president with the center-right National Party, has failed to increase popularity, alleging that Mujica would transform Uruguay into a radical socialist state.

Mujica, who spent 12 years in prison during military rule in the past, is expected to continue the economic policies of his predecessor President Tabare Vasquez. The current president was very popular because he brought Uruguay out of a bad economy and created employment. He served for a five-year term, but was banned by Uruguay's constitution from running for a second term, which may not have been enough to consolidate all his successes - many supporters said. Vazquez imposed a progressive income tax and used the revenue to lower unemployment and poverty, provided equal access to health care to everyone under 18 and guided the economy to 1.9 percent growth this year even as many other economies receded.

Crime and abortion were also major campaign topics. To combat delinquency, Mujica said he would focus on the root causes of poverty and social marginalization. On the contrary, Lacalle said he would use the Interior Ministry, police and full force of the law against criminals. Lacalle determinedly opposed legalizing abortion, while Mujica declared he would not veto a measure to depenalize it.

Mujica, who has now 74 years old, had been a leader in the Tupamaros urban rebel movement in the 1970s and 1980s. However, during the campaign, he said that he’s currently inspired by Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva politics’, which now represents a moderate left position.

Mujica thanked the population that embraced him, but also all his "brothers" across Latin America in his victory speech.

The new president will begin a five-year term on March 1, 2010.